Matching Converse and Ballroom Dancing
by klemonademouth
Summary: "They meet when they're five. They're on the bus to school, and a second grader picks up Blaine's Powerpuff Girls lunch box and throws it out the window. Blaine bursts into tears. Kurt, just a kindergartener, trips the bully as he walks past." Klaine.


**A/N: Based on a tumblr prompt given to me by an anon: "Kurt and Blaine met when they were children, and grew up together as best friends, getting involved in all sorts of best friend shenanigans. ****Okay, basically I want a really cute Klaine thing here. You could make this adorable. I am sure of this." **

**So I wrote, and I actually really like kiddie Blaine. A lot. This is pretty much mine and my best friend Kyle's friendship in a nutshell (you know, besides the dating stuff because that didn't happen... he's gay...).**

**This is a very different style from what I normally write, but I thought I'd give it a shot!  
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**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.  
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They meet when they're five. They're on the bus to school, and a second grader picks up Blaine's Powerpuff Girls lunch box and throws it out the window, declaring that "only girls like that stuff". Blaine, terrified, bursts into tears. Kurt, just a puny kindergartner with a Mickey Mouse bowtie, trips the bully as he walks past, and returns Blaine's watery smile with a beaming one of his own.

They sit together every day after that.

They make a funny picture, the two of them. Kurt sits in the window seat, gesturing wildly as he tells Blaine about clothes and music and Paris (which he actually knows nothing about, but he's seen Beauty and the Beast so he figures that's enough). Blaine sits facing him cross-legged on the seat beside, his chin on his hands as he listens intently, a small glimpse of the thoughtful and formal young man he will become.

On really wonderful days, Blaine tells Kurt stories, ones he makes up as he goes along. Far off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, princes in disguise. Sometimes they make sense, sometimes they don't. Either way, it doesn't really matter. Kurt sits in awed silence, his eyes never wavering from Blaine's face as Blaine weaves fantastic tales from thin air. He holds Blaine's hand tightly on the seat, as if he's afraid that Blaine might fly away like the magic in his stories if he doesn't hold him down.

So they're dreamers, but they dream different dreams. Blaine dreams of princes in towers (he 's still too young to understand or even register why he dreams of princes and not princesses), sorcery, adventures. Kurt dreams of sparkling runways and cameras flashing and roaring crowds.

On the first day of first grade, Kurt presents Blaine with a brand-new Powerpuff Girl's lunchbox, and Blaine presents Kurt with a marriage proposal. They decide mutually that they're too young, and shake hands on the mature agreement that they'll wait until they're at least sixteen. Blaine twists Kurt a promise ring out of pipe cleaners and Kurt wears it up until the day it falls apart.

They buy matching converse high-tops, in bright purple. They sit side-by-side on Kurt's couch eating Annie's mac and cheese and watch the Sound of Music with Kurt's mom. They invent a secret language that looks somewhat like Chinese, and promptly forget about it a week later. They have tea parties with stuffed animals and rope their parents into joining. They put on two-person plays in their basements that make no sense and usually end in tears.

Second grade is when Blaine discovers that reading is something he's _really good_ at. He devours every chapter book he can get his hands on, and for an entire year he's convinced that his Hogwarts letter will come to him when he turned eleven. And _finally_, he has real stories to tell to Kurt. And even though Kurt will never actually read the book, he knows every second of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by heart. Even as he gets older, he never reads the books- he insists to anyone who tries to make him that he much prefers Blaine over J.K. Rowling.

In third grade, Elizabeth gets sick. At eight years old, Kurt is still _just a kid._ And he can't quite grasp the concept that his mom is sick and she isn't getting better. Blaine nearly lives at Kurt's house that year, sleeping in the same bed as him and holding him close when his nightmares wake him in the middle of the night. He cuddles against Blaine as he cries, Blaine's arm secure around his shoulders, Blaine's own tears wetting Kurt's hair. His hand is there, holding Kurt's, an anchor in the turbulent ocean of sorrow that threatens to swallow the Hummel family.

Blaine is there with the family when they say their last goodbyes, when Elizabeth Hummel closes her eyes for the last time. He cries with Kurt long into the night, the two of them curled into each other on Blaine's narrow, Star Wars-themed bed.

Fourth grade is when Kurt learns how to sew, and the raw talent he shows in making actual, functional pieces of clothing (at the age of eight!) without patterns or instruction causes _waves_ amongst teachers and parents. Kurt's dad is told nearly every day this year that his child is _going_ places. Nobody says exactly where Kurt was going, or how they all know when he's only eight, but Burt is proud of him just the same. Blaine is his model and mannequin, and stands beside him with the patience of a saint for hours, while Kurt adjusts and sews and re-adjusts and hems and sews some more.

Fifth grade is when Blaine decides that for the rest of his life, he will wear a suit and a tie, every day. He has four suits, and every morning Kurt picks out Blaine's tie for him. He has over fifty- every single one a Kurt Hummel original. He throws a semi (fairly immature) temper tantrum when his soccer coach tells him that he has to take off the suit to play soccer, and Kurt is really the only one who can coax him into his soccer uniform.

They enter sixth grade (and middle school) hand-in-hand, their eyes unused to the bright, glamorous lights of middle school. The eighth graders are so big, the water fountains so high.

It's in seventh grade that they experienced their first prejudice. Sometime over the summer, their classmate's little kid eyes have turned into big-kid eyes and their gazes have turned shunning.

When Blaine pulls Finn Hudson (who has always been pretty nice to him) aside, and asks what's happening, Finn avoids his eyes and tells him in a mutter that it's "queer" to walk around holding hands with your best friend.

It's surprisingly difficult to change. Blaine has spent as long as he can remember holding Kurt's hand as he walks down the hallways, tugging him into his arms when Kurt sees something that unexpectedly reminded him of his mother, ballroom dancing around their bedrooms together as they listen to the "Beauty and the Beast" soundtrack.

He and Kurt have been so wrapped up in their friendship for so long that he hasn't noticed that other boys don't _do _that. Nor do they watch Disney movies or sew or go to the Community Playhouse to watch musicals or drown themselves in books.

That night, they have their first fight. Their first _real_ fight, which is sad in a way because it means they're growing up. It's so different than their shoving, laughing, sand-throwing, 'you-stole-my-Pokemon-card" fights of their childhood.

Blaine's reading _A Christmas Carol_ out loud to Kurt, who's lying with his eyes closed beside Blaine, his head resting on his shoulder, their legs tangled with each other's, and their sides pressed together.

Kurt's eyes open when Blaine falters for the first time ever in reading, and his expression of concern is too much, and Blaine blurts everything. He can't stop, even as he sees the flush spreading across his best friend's cheekbones, and he knows Kurt is getting madder and madder. It snowballs quickly into a screaming match, and Blaine throws the thick paperback book across the room, bellowing, "People think it's queer! People think _we're_ queer!"

"_And what if I am?_" Kurt shrieks back, and they both freeze, and _God_ Kurt didn't mean for that to come out but it just did and he's going to lose his best friend-

And then Blaine is beside him, his arms opening and pulling Kurt in as they have so many times before, hands stroking his hair and lips murmuring, "I still love you, you're my best friend, I love you, it's okay."

So they stop holding hands at school and they stop mentioning sewing and reading and musicals and talk about more normal things like football and girls (things that _totally don't interest them_ but in middle school, the ninth circle of hell is being ignored). But Blaine still knows that Kurt has a weakness for spring rolls and Kurt still knows that Blaine hates anything grape-flavored (except actual grapes, of course). And outside of school, they're as inseparable as ever, and they still stand up on the couch and sing into spoons every time they watch "Ella Enchanted" and Anne Hathaway sings the classic Queen song.

Eighth grade begins in a whirlwind when Blaine discovers he's strangely good at football (despite his size and stature), at the same time as Kurt discovers that he's actually a really talented singer, because he can reach insanely high notes, and his voice is showing no signs of breaking although Blaine's has started on the adorably adolescent crackling that Kurt pretends not to love. And for Christmas, Kurt gets singing lessons and Blaine gets a guitar and they sing corny, friendshippy duets by the fireplace, and Blaine's voice is actually really good when it doesn't crack. And they still wear each other's socks because they've long since forgotten which ones belonged to who, and they still have nearly identical playlists on their ipods. And the guest room in Blaine's house is pretty much Kurt's second bedroom, for the amount of things of Kurt's that reside there.

And on some May night while they lie in the tent that has overseen nearly every one of their sleepovers (even the ones they've had inside), Blaine tells Kurt what he's known about himself since before he knew what being gay meant, and Kurt's unexpected reaction is to laugh so hard he cries.

By this time, it's gotten to the point where nobody really calls them "Kurt" or "Blaine" anymore- they're a singular unit, "Kurt-and-Blaine". Their friends do it, their enemies do it, even Kurt and Blaine's parents do it. And although their last names are nowhere near each other on attendance sheets, Kurt and Blaine's teachers do it, too.

Summer comes and both Kurt and Blaine discover an epic love for cooking- and at the same time, discover something they're actually _really bad _at, which is a miracle and brings their slightly swelled heads to a more normal size, because up until now they've never been really bad at anything. Mrs. Anderson often comes home from work in the evening to find two fourteen year old boys lightsaber dueling with loaves of horribly flat french bread, crowing when the other's loaf breaks. They camp out in front of the TV in their boxers, throwing Ramen Noodles at each other and watching terrible TV shows with canned laugh tracks. They share pickles from a jar and talk about coming out to their parents, but both of them know they're too horribly chicken to ever follow through.

They made the best of it, really, because they know that high school is just around the corner and things will change. Maybe they'll change for the better, but they'll change.

It's the day before the first day of ninth grade, and Kurt is stretched across Blaine's bed (as usual), on his stomach, with his chin propped up on his hand. The latest issue of _Vogue_ is lying underneath him and Blaine is sort of stealthily peeking over his shoulder while simultaneously pretending he isn't, until Kurt rolls his eyes and lets out a fondly irritated huff of breath, pushing the magazine further away from his body so they can both see.

Blaine is the first to break the silence. "What tie should I wear tomorrow?"

His collection has grown after various birthdays and Christmases and Easters into a mass of nearly three hundred, all hanging neatly from hooks in his closet (Blaine is somewhat of an organizational freak). He's long since outgrown the original fifty Kurt made him so long ago, of course, but Kurt has made so many since then with the sewing machine Blaine had saved up nearly all his money for _years_ to buy for Kurt for his twelfth birthday.

Kurt still dresses him every day, because Blaine has _no idea_ how to match colors (just because he's gay doesn't mean he understands style at all, besides appreciating _Vogue_), and Kurt would most definitely fly into a rage if Blaine showed up to school wearing, say, and orange shirt and a purple tie.

Besides, Kurt always says orange is an unacceptable color. _"It's just ugly on nearly everyone."_

Kurt holds up his orange shirt, speaking of the devil, and says matter-of-factly, "I want you to burn this shirt."

"No," says Blaine. It's an argument they have nearly every week, like clockwork.

"It's _orange_, Blaine."

It's gotten to the point where Blaine has had _dreams _about this particular argument.

"Orange isn't even a good _color, _Blaine. It doesn't go well with most skin tones, and unless it's done subtly, it's downright hideous. This-" he shakes the shirt for emphasis, "is not subtle. Burn the shirt."

"No."

This is where the argument always ends- Kurt hangs up the shirt with a sigh of defeat and the threat to one day burn it when Blaine isn't expecting it. He picks out a white oxford and a tie with red and navy blue stripes, telling him to pair it with his dark blue blazer.

Then they lay back down on Blaine's bed, hooking their ankles together and turning the page of _Vogue_ together, and trying not to think of the next day, when everything might change.

To their immense surprise, nothing really changes.

They stay best friends, that freshman year. There are moments of fear that first day- like when they get onto the bus as ninth graders and there's a group of really frightening-looking juniors in the back fighting over a plastic knife covered in- oh god, is that _blood_?

Kurt manages to stay out of the spotlight and not draw attention to himself, which really is a feat inside itself, because the boy is made for attention being drawn to him. Blaine's heart sometimes hurts looking at him, because he knows the boy just isn't meant for Lima, Ohio. He's meant for New York or Los Angeles, where people will accept him and adore him in the way he deserves.

Blaine has a much easier time fitting in. He's on the soccer team his freshman year, but he knows what he really wants to do is football. He doesn't have the guts to try out.

In their sophomore year of high school, they join the Glee club. Blaine's a little more reluctant than Kurt- mostly because he doesn't think his voice is good enough to merit his trying out for New Directions (and does Mr. Schuester even realize what that sounds like?). But in the end, Kurt convinces him, and they do matching songs- Kurt does "Mr. Cellophane" and Blaine sings "All I Care About". He rejects Rachel when she tries to pull a move on him, and she tells him that he isn't lead singer material, and insists to Mr. Schuester that he find someone who _is_ or else she'll quit.

Somehow, Mr. Schue gets Finn to join the club- Blaine doesn't want to know how- and when Kurt joins the football team (Blaine is _ecstatic_ to be playing alongside his best friend, but somehow the other guys don't feel the same way), they win their first game of the season and add another three guys to the glee club. And Kurt calls Blaine that night fairly _vibrating_ with excitement, telling Blaine that he came out to his dad and his dad is _okay_ with it. And that inspires Blaine to come out to _his_ parents, who are a little less okay with it than Burt is until they see Blaine's face and pull him in close, murmuring that they'll love him no matter what.

They have their fair share of drama- They get slushied all the time, Finn chooses football over glee more than once, Quinn is pregnant with a baby who turns out not to be Finn's but _Puck's_ (of all people), and Santana and Brittany have a confusing relationship that nobody understands, and most of the guys in the club were misogynistic jerks (including Mr. Schue, occasionally), and Mr. Schuester's wife fakes a pregnancy that ends in divorce- but mostly, Kurt and Blaine manage to stay pretty removed from it (well, as removed as one could be), and just stay _really _good best friends, the kind of best friends that don't usually happen in high school. The kind of best friends that Puck and Finn _aren't_ (because who gets their best friend's girlfriend pregnant? ... not that it would be an issue with Kurt or Blaine).

So instead they spend their schooldays singing their lungs out with Glee club and rarely getting solos (Blaine remembers that he and Burt flew down to the school and threw a hissy fit when Kurt was refused a solo by Mr. Schue, which turned into a moot point anyway because Kurt threw it to protect his dad and Blaine), and they spend their weekends doing nonsense things like buying more matching pairs of converse when Kurt's feet grow (again) and lying on the roof of Blaine's house counting the stars (and having to start over when they get confused and lose track). And Blaine knows about Kurt's crush on Finn, and he knows how _that_ ends, and he's the one to hold Kurt when Kurt cries.

So when something shifts over the summer, and Blaine starts to _notice_ Kurt in ways he didn't before, it's uncomfortable. Strange. Frightening. Because this is his best friend, this is Kurt, and this is the boy who narrowly avoids getting _killed_ by some puckhead neanderthal because for some reason Kurt thinks it's a good idea to chase Karofsky into the locker rooms, yelling about the boy's ignorance, and Blaine actually has to pull Kurt away and send Karofsky a menacing glare. This is Kurt who he's actually seen naked too many times to count, but not recently, and now he's having _dreams _about seeing Kurt naked. And sometimes when he looks he sees _something else_ in Kurt's eyes too, but he's too scared of _messing this up_, and he just can't. He can't take that risk.

Which is why it's a surprise when, a week before Regionals of their Junior year, just as the Glee Club is going through its usual competition-based round of relationship drama, Kurt kisses Blaine when they're studying on the bed. It's so unlike the sticky-lipped cheek-kisses they shared when they were younger that Blaine actually freezes, which Kurt takes as rejection. He starts to pull away before Blaine comes to his senses and grabs Kurt's shirt, pulling him back in and sealing their lips back together, and in a way, sealing their fate.

He and Kurt get to duet at Regionals, mostly because Mr. Schue seems to realize that they are the _only_ two people in the group who can get along at the moment without killing each other, and also because their voices together are amazing. They win, unsurprisingly, although the group they face- an all-boys a Capella (always one of Kurt's secret fetishes he never shared with Blaine)- is pretty good. Mr. Schue takes them to Breadstix to celebrate, and Kurt and Blaine claim a separate table, because they realize _this is their first date_.

Which is incredibly stupid too because they've gone on so many non-dates- pretty much since as long as they can remember- and they've held hands and snuggled and now they can kiss too, which is pretty awesome and not as strange as they'd thought it would be. So they do so, and Puck maybe catcalls a little and Santana requests both of them to get some, and Mercedes says something about action and white boys, and both of them grin but don't blush because it's _them_. And they slow dance at prom, and both try to lead, and fall over themselves in laughter before making slight mockery of those couples around them by twirling around in their own version of ballroom dancing that they've had perfected since they were about nine.

Their Senior year is filled with homophobic idiots and plenty of slushie facials but they don't actually care all that much, because they're back to holding hands in the hallways, only now it means that much more. They still lie out on Blaine's roof at night (until it gets too cold to do that), only now they do a whole lot more than _just talking_ (because come on, they're teenage boys and they're in love and Blaine kind of can't keep his hands _off_ Kurt). There is no romantic exchange of "I love you"- they've been telling each other that since they were five years old. Now, it's just a different sort of love, the kind that's breathed out in between kisses and in the warm quiet of the morning, tangled up in sheets.

Everyone's actually _surprised_ when they go to different college, and at first it's _awful_, the distance, but then they get good at it and they get _really_ good at phone sex, and maybe separation was good for them because Kurt is absolutely, one-hundred-percent sure of himself when he gets down on one knee two summers after they graduate and proposes to Blaine, who just rolls his eyes and says, "Yes, of course I'll marry you, now get up, people are staring."

And maybe in hindsight, the fruit aisle of a grocery store wasn't the most romantic place to propose, but Kurt and Blaine had never been the most conventional of couples, and they weren't about to start now. The wedding is small, with only a few in attendance, but at Rachel's insistence, the reception is big. Kurt and Blaine sneak off to the limo about halfway through it and aren't seen again for another week, having taken up refuge in Los Angeles for their honeymoon.

In some ways, they're still little kids. For Kurt's thirtieth birthday, Blaine buys him sequined converse and takes him to a drive-in theater that's playing _Beauty and the Beast_. For Blaine's, Kurt presents him with a Powerpuff girls lunch box.

And no, Kurt and Blaine aren't the most normal of couples (and that's _without_ the obvious homosexuality coming into play there), but they're happy with each other, and they've been happy with each other their entire lives, and they will be until they're old and gray, and probably beyond that too.

Kurt never ends up going to see Paris, and Blaine doesn't learn how to actually fence until he's well into his fifties. Kurt really never does read Harry Potter, and Blaine tries hard but he can't convince their children to, either.

But the point of the matter is, their entire lives are full of each other.

**A/N: Thanks for reading!**


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